


ten things angelica schuyler hates about thomas jefferson

by multicorn



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-28 22:23:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6347932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/multicorn/pseuds/multicorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>talking with him is like a battle.  and she's needed that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ten things angelica schuyler hates about thomas jefferson

1\. The thing about Jefferson -

("Thomas," he drawls, amused, one eyebrow arched, the first time they meet and every time afterwards his name slips out of her mouth.

There are too many men named Thomas, though, in the world.And there's no one else like Jefferson, so that's who he'll always be to her.)

 

2\. The thing about Jefferson is that -

(They meet, funnily enough, at a ball.He's drinking punch in the corner when her friend Maria introduces them.Usually she'd draw trails of conversation criss-crossing through the center of the room, but that night, she's stuck to the corner.

She can't leave when he's so completely and infuriatingly wrong.)

 

3\. The thing about Jefferson is that - well - this is hard to say -

(She doesn't go to balls to talk.She goes to balls to dance - the delight of spinning around and around, the freedom to throw out her arms and kick up her feet.)

 

4\. The thing about Jefferson is that he's nothing like Alexander.

(Her Alexander, she still wants to say, but even in her mind she won't cross that line.)

 

5\. And yet.

(Talking with Jefferson is like a battle.

Talking with Alexander was like a dance.Still is, even across the ocean, the push-pull stretching to weeks and months over the billowing waves, but no less decisive for all that.

Conversation with Jefferson is like fencing, sparks flying not from lightning bolts of inspiration but from the meeting of rapier strikes.

Still, the rhythm that fencing falls into isn't so different from that of dancing.And having a worthy opponent, no less than a compatriot, makes her raise her chin, strengthen her blows, and feel more alive.)

 

6\. The thing about Jefferson is that she's not sure how much she cares.

(She ends the first night she meets him in his bed.Nods at Mr. Church across the ballroom - he knows not to wait for her.

Jefferson's not even good, is the thing.He's attractive - physically - she wants to lick all the way down his chest, when he takes his shirt off, and of course he lets her, she does.But he's the laziest lover she's ever had.

She likes taking control, sometimes, so it's not the worst thing in the world.A body like his was made to be used, and she knows what to do with it.Still - )

 

7\. The thing about Jefferson is that she keeps coming back.

(His library, now, that might be the best thing about the Hotel de Langeac.  It's more expansive, more extravagant, than it has any right to be.  He's prouder of the architecture, of the art he's collected, and most of all of the young black man - James - that he's had trained in cuisine by a chef to Louis XIV.

"My chief cook," he says, "invented this."They're eating a soup she can't disentangle all the flavors of.There's a rich meaty broth, a winding thread of something vegetal, a sharp bite of spice.

She's the one to raise an eyebrow, this time.  "I'm surprised he's still with you," she says.  "Can't he sue for his freedom, here?")

 

8\. The thing about Jefferson is that even his library isn't as good as it looks.

("No books on economics," she says.  "Really."  Hands on her hips, she's still smaller than him, but he has a way of seeming to shrink when someone stares him down.

"It's not a real field of study," he says."It's all lies."

"So, your money.It appears all by itself, I suppose?")

 

9\. The thing about Jefferson is that he might be.(He's not - ).(He could never be - ).A substitute for someone else.

(She sends Alexander The Wealth of Nations, with a long letter of commentary.  And another letter full of thoughts that come after the first one is sent.

He sends her a compilation of the Federalist Papers - fifty-one his, and she knows which they are, even if no one else does - and her name inscribed on the cover.She traces the letters, puts it under her pillow for one foolish girlish night.Of course she can't sleep.

She passes it on as a gift to Jefferson, smile bright and uninflected.)

 

10\. The thing about Jefferson is that she enjoys his company too much to ever really hate him.

("The Declaration of Independence," she says, the first time they meet.

He smiles, comfortable, self-satisfied, it's clear as day that he's preparing to recieve a compliment.

"You said that all men are created equal."

His lips purse a little - or is that a pout - he waves his hand as if to encourage her compliment to come faster.

"Have you ever," she asks, drive it home like a dagger, save the most important word for last, "thought about women?"

"All the time," he says, and laughs.She thinks he's trying to flirt.

"And?Are we not equal to men?Shouldn't we be included?"She feels like a bird taking flight - saying it, she's been thinking it too long, saying it to his face, wings unfurled.

"It wasn't relevant," he says, and oh, they're off.To the races, to bed, to the moon.

Every once in a while he will admit that she's right; he'll pretend he never did, half an hour later, and if she were fighting for results she'd get sick of it.But she's fighting for the thrill of it - results are nowhere to be found - there's foment in the air in the streets, and a Revolution finished in America she never got to be part of, and an endless intellectual wrestling match here, over dinner and in nests of sheets.Her mind as well as her body is naked and oiled and stronger -

And there's another country to go back to, an ocean away.)


End file.
